Sunday, 22 April 2012

The Guardian Goes Full-On Dictatorship...

But if the answers, whatever they are, involve challenging corporate power and practices, legislating to improve the content of food or even limiting individuals' freedom to consume junk, then so be it.

We had McDonald's this lunchtime for a change, £1.99 well spent. I'm a bit peeved that they gave me a McChicken Sandwich and not a Big Mac, but splendid value Sunday brunch for the family for £10.44.

As to 'obesity crisis' it is not a 'crisis', is it? A 'crisis' is when some big tough decision has to be made today which will alter the future course of history (e.g. Cuban missile crisis, or maybe sudden outbreak of some terrible infectious disease). A few fatties getting or remaining fat is not a crisis, it'll be the same in ten or twenty years time, nothing terrible will happen which wouldn't otherwise have happened.

"tax it (and then tax it again, and again), impose minimum pricing (and keep regularly raising the minimum price), prohibit it being advertised, ban it ..."

and why this cry (again) today ?

> Jamie Oliver, interviewed in today's Observer Food Monthly, laments the lack of government action on obesity.So, there you go - exactly what is "junk food" - well forget all the waffle about "food that is nutritionally deficient, has too much of that, too little of this" - "junk food" will be what someone with an axe to grind and given the authority to wield it will determine - in short "things we think you [people who for some stupid reason think you should have any say in the matter at all - which only goes to show how you need someone making your decisions for you] shouldn't ever be allowed to eat" ...

Hmm - I wonder if any of the recipes in this months Observer Food Monthly might fall foul of the "law of the food police" the Observer/Guardian so desperately wants ... and I wonder if they and Jamie would care to speculate how many "jobs and businesses, including restaurants" will go under when these "you can't make that any more, you certainly can't sell that because this 'outlet' is within a kilometre of a school, you just try and see how many burgers you manage to sell when you have to charge £10 for it, because of all the 'health tax' payable on burgers ..." sure fire cures for the "obesity epidemic" are in place ...

The next step will be to ban meat, thus not only addressing the "obesity crisis" but also "saving the planet" - compulsory mung beans and carrot juice for all. So much for "Britons never, never will be slaves."

Just t'other day, to be precise Sunday, the G's sister organ, the Observer, published an editorial, alongside an interview with a certain Mr Oliver, and an article relating to both, making the point that "it was about time" that 'cheap'n'nasty junk foods in all their noxious varieties' [I paraphrase] , including of course all the cheap'n'nasty processed products that simply litter the shelves of every supermarket and convenience store be either taxed very very heavily to actively discourage people from buying them, or better yet, banned outright. Etc. Etc.

> possible measures, including "fat taxes", limits on fast-food outlets near schools and an end to "irresponsible" marketing of unhealthy foodstuffs

> legislating to improve the content of food or even limiting individuals' freedom to consume junk,

And there were a considerable number of comments on the articles of the "yay, yeah, smash the filthy profit driven purveyors of junk, the people who make it and the people who sell it", etc. etc.

Today the G has an article: Foodbank handouts double as more families end up on the breadline : Trussell Trust says two centres a week are opening in UK to give food parcels to working families struggling to cope

> Britain's leading foodbank network, the Trussell Trust, says every single day it is handing out emergency food parcels to parents who are going without meals in order to feed their children, or even considering stealing food to put on the table, as the government's austerity measures start to bite.

and guess what "theme" can be found recurring in the comments.

[sarcasm borne of despair at the fuckwittedness of some people warning]

.. definitely not "Isn't it disgusting ... people not being able to afford to buy enough cheap food to simply feed themselves and their children .... and we know who is to blame " ....